Logan: Have you ever noticed that I never participate in the weekend spending estimations?

Mike: Haha, yes, I have. And that’s fine! I don’t like to budget, meaning I don’t sit down and figure out what my budget is for the week or the month. But I do think about how much money I have in my head, and what I’m allowed to spend without spending all my money, which is why the estimations help. So it’s kind of like budgeting. Also, other people like doing them! I remember one time I didn’t put up the post, and some of our readers were like, where is the estimations post!?!?

Logan: It stresses me out a lot to even read them. So I never do. And then sometimes on Monday I’ll ask you about your weekend and you’re like, Um read our website? Butttttttttt. I can’t? I think it’s because of a few things. One, I don’t like thinking about money, ever. And two, spontaneity is important to me even if it’s the spontaneity to stay in and watch 22 episodes of a television show about a Washington fixer having an affair with the president with breaks only to go downstairs and buy ice cream (twice). You know?

Mike: Yes, I know! And we all, obviously, have our different modes of operation when it comes to living within our means. Mine is just keeping the number in my head and making sure I don’t go beyond that number. I think with the estimations and check-ins, it’s helpful for some people because we often look at our bank accounts and think, “Whoa, where did all my money go?” And then you see the list of things you spent money on when you check-in, and think, “Oh, okay, that’s where.” I mean: “I am actually shocked on a regular basis that small sums of money add up to one large sum of money”—that is a thing you said today, right? But also, if something stresses you out: Find an alternative. And you have an alternative mode of not spending all of your money, which you talked about earlier this week, which I think is to try to spend less than you normally do. And that is good and great.

Logan: Hha yes I did say that. And it’s totally true. I’ve been doing this cash thing, or trying to do this cash thing, where if I go out I just bring the cash that I’m going to spend that night. Okay this has happened twice, that I’ve gone out since I decided to do this, because really I’ve found the best way to not spend money is to not have money, and then if you do have money, to not leave your house. So I guess I’m okay with tiny little estimations. Estimations for the next six hours. Also Mike you read all of my posts and remember them that is very touching to me. I mean I know you have the best memory of any person living or dead, but still.

Mike: Estimations for the next six hours! Do the thing that works, as we say. And haha, yes, I remember a lot of things. It’s a curse, because I remember good things, but also all of the bad things. Which can be haunting. Okay, I’m not going to think about it, because I’m going to start recalling bad things. Also, I just realized that a thing you do on here that I don’t do is: Do 1 Thing. Probably because that stresses me out! It stresses me out to think about all the things I have to do. So I just do them and try not to think about it.

Logan: Oh I thought it was because you never have things to do because … you just do them before they have an opportunity to be something you have to do. Which is I guess what you said. Don’t recall bad things! Only recall good things. Tell me a memory that we shared that I probably forgot!

Mike: There was a night when when we went to that Italian restaurant with that weird name: Noodle Pudding. And I ordered an arugula salad, and you ordered an endive salad, and your endive salad was so much better than mine, so you gave me part of it. And then we went walking out to the water, and talked about starting a website, and you and I got ice cream cones from Mr. Softee. It started raining a little bit. And then you showed me your cousin’s apartment.

Logan: OH MY GOD. I had forgotten about that night totally??? Except now I remember it. It was pre-website? I guess it must have been. Oh right because I wasn’t living here yet, I was … still living in Portland? Or was I in Virginia? I don’t know. You just told me I was in Virginia, thanks Mike. And my cousin lived in Brooklyn Heights in this very nice one bedroom with exposed brick and I was like, “Yeah, I’d live here.” But then he moved, for reasons he later explained to me when I talked to him for our website! Actually I think we did that interview in that same apartment that I showed you, with the exposed brick.

Also I went to that restaurant right before Christmas, and I sat at the bar and chatted with all these regulars and had the best time, and one of the people I talked to was this man who did that thing where he was like, Have I met you before? And I was like, No. And he was like, No I think I met you at this restaurant, I think you were here and you were sad and we talked about you being sad. And I was like, I guess that’s plausible. And then I spent a week after thinking I’d maybe been there another time by myself and been sad and talked to this person that I didn’t remember. And I spent that week worried about my memory more than normal. But ultimately I decided that he had me confused with someone else. GREAT STORY. Get the gnocchi.

Mike: I feel like this is like the end of The Notebook when Gena Rowlands remembers everything. Tomorrow, you will forget who I am.

I was wondering what TV show it is that Logan watched the night before the babysitting, but I admit to reluctance to comment there and be, like, forget loyalty to friends or ability to meet deadlines, talk to me about TEEEVEEEEEE. So: Scandal. Maybe?

In other TV related Billfold real talk, the repeated mention of Felicity led me to start watching it for the first time ever, despite the fact that I was almost certainly the target demographic when it came out. Good show! Highly enjoyable, believable love triangle, holds up pretty well.

But what I really came here to say was: I love the Noodle Pudding memory. Love it.

I stopped commenting on the weekend spending/recap posts the one time I got the impression that another commenter had gone back through past comments of mine to use as ammo against present comments. Common practice at the awl, so I don’t blame you for a second Logan.

@redheaded&crazy I stopped commenting on the Hairpin for this very reason. Literally this crazy ass person (who also happens to be a regular commentator on the Billfold as well) makes it her business to alienate and drive away anyone who disagrees with her or anything in any of the articles or posts.

Some weeks I can’t even think about the Do 1 Thing stuff. Those are the weeks when I am chanting to myself, “Don’t think, just do. Don’t think, just do,” because my to do list is so overwhelming it makes me start to panic when I start to consider whether I can get it all done in time.

I am kind of sad that open thread, do 1 thing, and estimation are all at the end of the week, because on Thursdays and Fridays I really don’t have much time to get to the Billfold (those are the craziest days at my job and also at home). I manage to make it for the estimate most weeks because I plan ahead to check for it, but I always feel like I miss the fun discussions on those other posts.